But land does.

Land remembers our childhood — the exact weight of our footsteps before we learned to move carefully through the world. The hollow we always returned to without knowing why. The tree we touched every time we passed, like a greeting we never consciously made.

Land remembers details of our childhood that we don’t. The routes we took when we were sad. The patches of light we sought out. The places we avoided, and the ones that held us without us asking to be held.

Land remembers details of our person that we likely don’t even notice — the pace we naturally fall into when no one is watching, the direction we instinctively turn when we’re lost, the kind of terrain that makes us exhale without meaning to.

Land isn’t passive. Land isn’t backdrop. Land is a witness — patient, non-judgmental, continuous. While our human relationships hold fragments of us, land holds the version of us that existed before we learned to perform ourselves.

There is something humbling in that. And something deeply relieving.

You don’t have to explain yourself to a place that already knows you.

Connect with your Nature Spirits and learn unique rituals to engage your ecosystem in a Tending Here session. Book your session here.

S. Kelley Harrell, M. Div.

Kelley Harrell is an animist, author, deathwalker, and death doula held by Tuscarora, Woccon, and Sissipihaw land. For the last 30 years, through Soul Intent Arts she’s helped others ethically build thriving spiritual paths. Her work is Nature-based, and centers soul tending through the Elder Futhark runes, animism, ancestral tending, and deathwork. She hosts the podcast, What in the Wyrd, and also writes The Weekly Rune as a celebration of the Elder Futhark in season. Work with her in the Runes for Change community or in her intensive soul tending training, The Spirited Path.  Full bio.

#beyourcommunity ~ #youareecosystem

elder well, die well, ancestor well

@kelleysoularts